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The Argonauts may not yet be able to beat the Grey Cup champions but there are hints they at least belong on the same field.

It’s been a long time since a Toronto team could say that.

The Argonauts lost 18-9 to the B.C. Lions on Monday. Respectable. And, yet disappointing at the same time.

“I’m not really into moral victories. This hurts right now,” said head coach Scott Milanovich, after watching his offence implode with four turnovers against the league’s best defence. “It’s disappointing we didn’t play better. They deserved to win. Give them credit. But if you lose you like to feel that: ‘Man, we did everything we could do.’ I doubt we feel that way.”

With Toronto owning the second-best defence in the league this had all the earmarks of smash-mouth football. And, that’s how it turned out.

Quarterbacks Travis Lulay and, in particular Toronto’s Ricky Ray, were under constant pressure. B.C. had four sacks. Toronto’s offensive line simply was unable to contain the Lions’ pressure.

“It’s on us up front. I’ll take the entire game on our shoulders,” said offensive tackle Wayne Smith. “I didn’t see them do anything exotic. This was stuff we should’ve picked up. They didn’t do anything we weren’t expecting.”

The Argonauts never got the running game going with Cory Boyd getting 23 yards. Chad Owens had about the only flashes of brilliance on offence with seven catches for 73 yards. But the only scores came on Swayze Waters’ three field goals.

“I’m not happy with (the sacks). And we didn’t run the ball well. And, I’m not sure it’s all the offensive line’s fault,” Milanovich said. “Protection, running the football, is more than the guys up front. We ask running backs and receivers to do things in that area too and ... there were a few breakdowns.”

Since 2006, Toronto has a 34-7 record when it wins the turnover battle; 4-56 when it doesn’t. When the Lions turned two turnovers on Toronto’s first two series into 10 points it proved to be a hill too big.

Ray’s pass on the first play hit receiver Dontrelle Inman but linebacker Dante Marsh popped the ball loose and into the hands of James Yurichuk. Lulay took the ball on the 20 and turned the interception into a 7-0 lead, hitting Akeem Foster.

On the next series Adam Bighill skyed to steal a pass over the middle at the Toronto 19.

“We hurt ourselves too much,” said Ray, as the defence this time limited damage to a field goal. “We gave them pretty much 10 points, especially against that defence you’re not going to get a lot. But we hung around and still had a chance.”

It was the Argos defence, that kept this close. They weren’t getting sacks, but they got pressure with Ejiro Kuale, Robert McCune and Kevin Huntley — except for one 32-yarder — making Andrew Harris look ordinary.

Curiously, on a night when defence ruled on both sides of the ball, it was a play not made that proved the turning point midway through the fourth.

Ernest Jackson got behind Jalil Carter on a 50-yard pass to the one. Trailing 11-9, the Argos mounted a classic goal-line stand, three times stuffing Harris. Foley thought he had stripped the ball. But, Lady Luck was cheering for the Lions: Officials ruled the play dead.

Soon, the Argos would be, too.

On a third and one the defence stopped Harris again. But linebacker Marcus Ball was called for offside.

“Our guys play hard, they run to the ball, they play aggressive and sometimes it gets us in trouble. But it’s also what has given us success,” said Milanovich, of his second-ranked defence. So, on B.C.’s fourth attempt, Mike Reilley plunged through to put B.C. up 18-9.

Other than another Ray fumble, it was game over.

SAME OLD FEELINGS

The Argos might be a better football team. The city may be host to the Grey Cup in November. And, for the first time in a quarter century the Argonauts and Tiger-Cats could be on a collision course to meet in the Eastern final.

But, attendance for Monday’s 5 p.m. start was announced at 22,841. Not bad. But not enough to get rid of the echo chamber effect in the Rogers Centre.

So far this team hasn’t captured the imagination of the locals.

Of course, a lot of them could have been home watching our women’s soccer team being gutted, or CTV’s 987th rerun of Usain Bolt. It’s 48 hours after. Hello!!!! Nothing’s changed, folks. He still won. And, the U.S. girls won. Again. So, nothing changed there either.

As for the Argos? Hey, they’re working on it.

THE HOMECOMING

Many folks who did show up weren’t cheering for Double Blue.

Lions receiver Foster had his own cheering section near a corner of the endzone. It didn’t take the Ajax native long to make them happy, beating Jordan Younger to snag the opening TD pass.

He had relatives from Jamaica, Barbados and parts of the U.S. who came to town last week for the funeral of family matriarch, and Akeem’s grandmother, Ruby Brown.

“For a lot of them, they’ll be watching me play for the first time,” Foster said told reporters this week. “It’s going to be a helluva group, especially when you add in my friends. It’s going to be an emotional game. I’ve definitely got to put it out there for Ruby.”